Nature-ral High

September 8, 2012

This climb is a long overdue entry to my blog. This was also a climb that had been cancelled several times and was almost cancelled permanently. But nevertheless last February, a team of 12 climbers consisting of PALMC members, friends and guides climb Mt. Ugo via the traverse trail.

Mt. Ugo is considered one of the best mountains in the northern mountain ranges. The mountain is situated in between two municipalites, Itogon Benquet and Kayapa, Nueva Viscaya. Before, to complete the traverse, three days should be alloted. But recently, with proper planning and training it can be done in two (this is what we did). Climbers normally leave in the evening in Manila and then start the trek very early the next day. The start of the trek is very steep but you wont notice much of this due the abundance of pine trees. After around 2 hours of trek you will reach Brgy. Ansipsip, the start of the flat hike. The flat trek continous for several hours. Carve on the mountain side, this place is what I call 'deja vu" roads because it seems everything is repeating, as if you are already lost.It will become steep again on the final assault to the summit that also doubles as the campsite. We reached the summit after around 9-10 hours of hiking. I guess whats mesmerizing about this mountain is the plentyness of pine trees and the view along the trail where you can see rolling green mountains from afar, plus of course the weather is very cool - as with any northern mountains. We had a good night at the summit. The weather was perfect during our climb. The sky was very clear and we were even able to stargaze for a while.

Resting at Brgy. Ansipsip

Deja Vu Roads

Deja Vu Roads

Amazing lights

Sunrise

Sea of Clouds?

The descent was almost the same as the previous day, steep descent. There was a trail part where we saw Baguio from a distance. There are still a lot of pine trees, the trail was also rolling. We passed by a community, rice fields (sort of rice terraces) and a long foot bridge. After this we were picked-up by our rented jeep all the way to baguio. Did'nt we know that one of our colleague own a house at baguio. We stayed here for the night (after sipping several beers) then leave the next day back to Manila.

If you look closely, Baguio can be seen on the left

A bridge too far

My climb 5 years ago and the current. The former was just a traditional

This climb was specially dedicated/organized to Barry Smith, who after his two years stint in the Philippines went back to his native country. Barry hope you had a good time with us, because we surely did. Till our next climb!